Psychology Of Addiction Research Articles

Much Ado about Handwriting: Countersigning with the Other Hand in Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has been seen as the nineteenth century prototype of the workings of the criminal mind. Similarly, current psychoanalytic readings of the novel suggest that it serves as a precursor to Freud’s theories on the structural model of personality, and repression and that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde can provide insight into the psychology of addiction, multiple personality disorder and borderline personality disorders, as these terms have currency in the discipline of modern psychology. Indeed, Stevenson’s novel can even be seen as a precursor to the very genre of Freud’s “case” study. In fact, current readings of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde continue to focus on its case study aspects, claiming that the novel shows “the composition and operation of the criminal mind” (Thomas qtd in Rosner, Spring 29). “Much Ado About Handwriting: Countersigning with the Other Hand in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is concerned with making a Gothic case “the composition and operation of the criminal mind,” but not because the word “composition” denotes a mental constitution that merely pre-exists the text or that the text refers to or represents a substantive criminal mind; instead the word suggests that there exists a displaced link between writing, reading, interpretation, and criminality as the shadowy “place” where the “other” begins and collusion enters the scene. Taking as a premise Jacques Derrida’s contention that “it is the ear of the other that signs,” this paper is concerned with “composition,” signatures and encryption as a way of exploring how these texts pose insoluble psychic double binds regarding the determination of criminality.

FROM DISABLING TO ENABLING THE PUBLIC INTEREST: NATURAL TRANSITIONS FROM GAMBLING EXPOSURE TO ADAPTATION AND SELF‐REGULATION

FROM DISABLING TO ENABLING THE PUBLIC INTEREST: NATURAL TRANSITIONS FROM GAMBLING EXPOSURE TO ADAPTATION AND SELF‐REGULATION

Impact of a Faculty Development Program in Addiction Psychology

ABSTRACT The Faculty Development Programs (FDP) were intended to increase substance abuse education in mainstream professional training programs by attracting and educating core faculty to teach about addictions. Five psychology faculty in the PhD program at the University of New Mexico participated in the only FDP funded within the discipline of psychology. Although none had a primary focus or expertise in substance use disorders prior to the FDP, all four of the Assistant Professors became addiction researchers. During the 5 years prior to FDP, 11% of their publications had focused on addictions, a figure not significantly different from other psychology department faculty. This figure rose to 43% during the 5 FDP years, and 70% during the 5 years after FDP. The number of addiction courses taught in the department of psychology rose from 5, to 11, to 22 during these same three 5-year periods. Graduate theses and dissertations on addiction topics also rose from 1.1 per year prior to FDP (all chaired by t...

On Addiction Denial and Cognitive Dysfunction in Alcoholics

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article LetterFull AccessOn Addiction Denial and Cognitive Dysfunction in AlcoholicsGordon D. Strauss, M.D., Gordon D. StraussSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Louisville, Louisville, KYPublished Online:1 Nov 2002AboutSectionsView EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail SIR: I read with interest but some dismay the article by Rinn et al. on addiction denial and cognitive dysfunction.1 I commend the authors for their attention to denial in alcohol dependence and their intriguing idea that this linchpin in the psychology of addiction may be understood, in part, as resulting from cognitive deficits. The authors make explicit that this was a sample of convenience (“the records of 32 male and 12 female alcohol-dependent hospitalized inpatients…referred for routine neuropsychological evaluations”) and that this study was based solely on chart review. Nevertheless, I find it hard to take the authors' conclusions seriously because they confound an investigation of a trait (fixed denial) with state-dependent measures (cognitive functions assessed 6 days after admission).Cognitive function (as well as mood) is known to be affected by chronic heavy alcohol ingestion, and it is not uncommon for one or more cognitive functions to continue to improve (toward a pre-drinking baseline) for 3 to 6 months after the last drink.2 Those changes are a function of sobriety rather than treatment. If the authors wish to explore the relationship of denial to cognitive function, they not only should assess these at the same points in time (as they acknowledge) but also when most of the effects on cognition from alcohol dependence have cleared. Such an approach would yield more reliable data and allow a more meaningful assessment of the authors' hypothesis.References1 Rinn W, Desai N, Rosenblatt H, et al: Addiction denial and cognitive dysfunction: a preliminary investigation. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 2002; 14:52-63Link, Google Scholar2 Geller A: Neurological effects, in Principles of Addiction Medicine, 2nd edition, edited by Graham AW, Schultz TK. Chevy Chase, MD, American Society of Addiction Medicine 1998, pp 777-778Google Scholar FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByAddiction Research & Theory, Vol. 18, No. 2 Volume 14Issue 4 November 2002Pages 467-467 Metrics History Published online 1 November 2002 Published in print 1 November 2002

Addiction, dopamine, and the molecular mechanisms of memory.

We thank Pier Piazza, Eric Nestler, Charles O'Brien, Howard Eichenbaum, and Eric Kandel for their helpful comments and criticisms of earlier versions of the manuscript.

Review of The Psychology of Addiction.

Review of The Psychology of Addiction.

Contributions to the psychology of addiction.

Contributions to the psychology of addiction.

Contributions to the psychology of addiction.

Contributions to the psychology of addiction.

Review of Contributions to the Psychology of Addiction.

Review of Contributions to the Psychology of Addiction.